Jokes:

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Cheer up. You could be stuck in a hole in the ground full of water. 

I know that you mean well….

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Espresso may not be the answer, but it’s worth a shot.

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A friend of mine tried to bother me with bird puns. 

Toucan play at that game.

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Where can you find the Arnold Schwarzenegger action figures?

Aisle B, back

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The other day I yelled into a colander. 

Yep, I strained voice.

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I have a friend who is going bald. He’s getting a bunch of tattoos of rabbits. 

From a distance, it looks like hares.

Advisory:

How Privileged Are You?

https://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/how-privileged-are-you#annotations:mWyoTDL_EeqwLC89L6_W3Q

What You Need to Be Warm: Neil Gaiman Reads His Humanistic Poem for Refugees, Composed from a Thousand Definitions of Warmth from Around the World

https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/01/08/what-you-need-to-be-warm-neil-gaiman/

Middle School Science Minute  

by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)

Middle School Science Minute: Hour of Code

I was recently reading the November/December, 2019 issue of “Science Scope,” a magazine written for middle school science teachers, published by the National Science Teachers Association. 

In this issue, I read the “Citizen Science” section. The title of the article, within the section was “Advance Technology Literacy and Bring Learners’ 21st Century Skills Up to Code with the Hour of Code,” written by Jill Nugent. 

The Hour of Code project provides an opportunity for every learner to try computer science programming/coding for one hour.  The “Hour of Code” takes place the second week of December. For more information, please visit:

http://code.org

http://hourofcode.com

From the Twitterverse:  

Brian Mendler@BrianMendler

5 non-negotiables for success w “hard to reach” kids. 1. Don’t take it personally. 2. 2nd to last word is best. 3. Late is better than not at all. 4. Some is better than none. 5. Private is better than public. Drop your best tip below! #edchat #edutwitter #thatonekid #tlap

Hong Kong Free Press@HongKongFP

Around 1,000 teachers have gathered at Central’s Edinburgh Place on Friday evening to protest against the Education Bureau’s investigation of complaints against pro-democracy teachers joining protests. Photo: Stand News screenshot. #hongkong #hongkongprotests #china #antiELAB

Typical EduCelebrity@EduCelebrity

Teaching tip: When students persistently put their Instagram handles on the board, change one letter in each without their knowing Make accounts with those handles with video recordings of your lessons. This will trick students into learning while they browse social media.

Fixing Education@FixingEducation

The most successful students have high EQ’s (Emotional Intelligence), not necessarily high IQ’s. Those students are better able to manage their emotions, in support of their goals and dreams. Should schools help students improve their EQ? Do we have the time? Resources?

Yong Zhao@YongZhaoEd

There are many “peculiar findings” in #PISA2018. Just in case, you missed, here is the 2nd one: PISA Peculiarities (2): Should Schools Promote a Competitive or Cooperative Culture?

PISA Peculiarities (2): Should Schools Promote a Competitive or Cooperative Culture?

Zhaolearning.com  

Typical EduCelebrity@EduCelebrity

Your teaching is only as good as it is worthy of being a post on your school’s social media account.

Don’t forget #mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST.  Look for your host Todd Bloch to have a middle school topic all ready to go!  Make it a strategic part of your personal professional development.

Strategies:  

What do teachers need to know about Cognitive Load Theory?

What do teachers need to know about Cognitive Load Theory?

Resources:

Portraits of America – Democracy on Film

The Story of Movies is an interdisciplinary film literacy program for middle and high school students created and distributed by The Film Foundation.

All print materials are available online at no cost to educators who have registered on The Story of Movies website.

http://www.storyofmovies.org/

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Classroom tools:  https://www.frbatlanta.org/education/classroom-tools  

Free Infographics Posters:  https://www.frbatlanta.org/forms/education/infographics-order.aspx  

Boundless OER Archive  

Everything you’d ever want from the Boundless Open Education Resources project.  Assessments, content, and stuff to keep your principal happy while he fills out that teacher observation sheet . . . 

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/catalog/boundlesscourses

60 Ways to Help Students Think for Themselves

https://www.teachthought.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/128ED0A3-0E80-40B1-A4A2-3B73467E3E3A.png

Bunk History

Bunk is, at its core, a connection engine. Each day,^* we comb the internet for interesting articles, opinion pieces, videos, maps, visualizations, and other digital content that engages the American past. We manually tag each piece of content, and excerpt it on our own site alongside other material from our archive that intersects with it in some way.

As you explore the site, you’ll notice several specific types of connections being made. They are:

• Idea: Shares several themes
• Core Idea: Shares a fundamental theme
• Person: Involves the same individuals
• Place: Shares a geographical location
• Previously: Similar themes in an earlier era
• Later: Similar themes in a later era
• Meanwhile: Happening around the same time

https://www.bunkhistory.org/

NPR Student Podcast Challenge

This contest is for teachers with students between 5th and 12th grade. Each podcast should be between three and 12 minutes long.

https://www.npr.org/2018/11/15/650500116/npr-student-podcast-challenge-home

Public Domain Day 2020

Why celebrate the public domain?

A wellspring for creativity. The goal of copyright is to promote creativity, and the public domain plays a central role in doing so. Copyright law gives authors important rights that encourage creativity and distribution. But it also ensures that those rights last for a “limited time,” so that when they expire, works can go into the public domain, where future authors can legally build upon their inspirations. As explained by the Supreme Court:

“[Copyright] is intended to motivate the creative activity of authors and inventors by the provision of special reward, and to allow the public access to the products of their genius after the limited period of exclusive control has expired.” Sony v. Universal (1984).

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2020/

Web Spotlight:  

The 100 Worst Ed-Tech Debacles of the Decade. . . with Pigeons

Ms. Watters has been documenting the short-comings of educational technology for over 10 years with a yearly list.  This is her one for the decade. Did your favorite teaching tech make the list?  

http://hackeducation.com/2019/12/31/what-a-shitshow

Top 5 FERPA & HIPAA Misconceptions for Schools

1. “HIPAA applies to schools.”Nope. 

2. “We can’t call the doctor who wrote the student note without a signed release.”That depends on who’s talking and what they’re sharing.

3. “Parents have access to all documents that mention their student.”Well, most documents, but actually ― not all.

4. “FERPA prohibits paraprofessionals/teacher aides from seeing IEPs and Section 504 plans.”That’s probably not right.

5. “Students can’t see other students’ grades under FERPA.”That depends on who’s grading.

https://www.frontlineeducation.com/blog/top-5-ferpa-hipaa-misconceptions-for-schools/#annotations:ZoYepDMnEeqI2HtrvNNpXQ

Canadian Clip Art

https://cira.ca/stock-images/gallery

This may be the fastest way to learn something new, according to science

“We reward perfection maybe too much,” Wilson said. “Errors and mistakes are just a part of life and as we’ve shown here, a crucial part of learning.”

https://www.inverse.com/article/61771-the-key-to-optimal-learning

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